Bush pilots are part of our Canadian heritage. The men and women who took to the skies in primitive aircraft over the Canadian North risked life and limb to deliver mail, supplies and people.
Of the bush pilots in our history, few led a life as interesting as Punch Dickins.
Punch was born on Jan. 12, 1899 in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. At birth, his name was Clennell Haggerston Dickins. When he was 10, he moved with his family to Edmonton and it was there he gained his nickname of Punch.
The most oft-cited source of the nickname states that the name came from his Aunt Nell, who called him a fat little punch since his clothes wouldn’t stay over his stomach.
In 1914, at the age of 16, he enrolled in a mechanical engineering course at the University of Alberta. When the First World War broke out that year, he quit school to enlist with the Canadian Army.
He spent one year as a company clerk with the 196th Western Universities Battalion. While in Europe, he decided he wanted more excitement in life and decided to join the Royal Flying Corps.
After getting his wings, he became a bomber pilot with the No. 211 Squadron and gained a reputation as a highly skilled pilot. Having shot down (possibly) seven German aircraft, he was one of the few bomber pilots to become a Flying Ace. For his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
When he returned to Edmonton in May 1919, he received an offer to work for General Motors. Two years later, he earned his Commercial Air Pilot’s Certificate and the Air Engineer’s Certificate.
In 1924, Dickins joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, serving until 1927 as a Flying Officer.
After leaving the military, he was one of the first pilots to join Western Canada Airways. With the company, he flew the first prairie airmail circuit that ran from Winnipeg to Edmonton, down to Calgary and back to Winnipeg.
Before long, he was flying into the Canadian North, where he became a legend in the Arctic. He logged over 1.6 million kilometres flying over the North, through bad weather conditions, on tiny landing strips and with limited navigational aids. Due to the proximity to the magnetic north pole, he had to use dead reckoning and hand-drawn maps to know where he was, and where he was going.
He flew the first aerial surveys of Canada, delivered the first airmail to the Northwest Territories and was the first person to fly over the Barren Lands, along the Arctic coastline and for the entire length of the Mackenzie River.
Punch even flew prospectors to Great Bear Lake where they found uranium, which was used in the Manhattan Project.
In 1935, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
When the Second World War began, Punch again joined up. He was appointed as the head of the Atlantic Ferry Command and he flew combat aircraft to Britain during the first years of the war. He eventually became involved with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and managed six flying schools.
After the war, Punch joined de Havilland Canada Aircraft Ltd., where he was responsible for thousands of sales to civil and military markets.
In 1968, Punch received the Order of Canada and was named one of Canada’s most outstanding citizens of Canada’s first century.
Punch then co-founded the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974.
He flew until he was 78 years old but lived until 1995 when he died at the age of 96.
Dickins Street in Yellowknife and Dickensfield in Fort McMurray are named for him.